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摘要
摘要
Dance, a vital expression of community and spirituality for Native Americans, has been the traditional metaphor for resolving conflict among Southern Plains tribes.
War, on the other hand, has been the metaphor for Anglo-Americans. Attacking conflicts in terms of dichotomies--us vs. them, friend vs. foe, civilized vs. savage--the European-influenced U.S. government has created battles out of almost every military, political, and social situation, from the Revolutionary War to the War on Drugs.
Here lies a fundamental cultural difference, says Howard Meredith, that has led to mistrust, poor communication, frustration, and polarization. The Anglo-American assumption that analysis and argument are universal and permanent traits, he contends, is not only erroneous, but has proven detrimental, even devastating, for Native Americans who have not customarily shared those values.
Historically, the U.S. government has tried to disintegrate tribes, alienate, assimilate, divide and conquer. And in the process, it has ignored the positive relationships the tribes had established among themselves and with their physical environment.
Although conflicts have arisen among tribes, Meredith asserts, the Southern Plains peoples have spent the vast majority of their time in mutual support of one another rather than at war. The Wichita, Caddo, Comanche, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Apache, Arapaho, Delaware, and others brought together by choice or adversity achieved harmonious coexistence through imagination, mythology, art, dance, commerce, and conservation.
In Dancing on Common Ground , Meredith uses tribal oral histories to describe alliances before the European infiltration and extensive archives, federal documents, and personal interviews to examine the evolution and attempted annihilation of native traditions through the past three centuries. Looking toward the future by assessing the past, he argues that the Southern Plains Indians need to re-establish self-determination, traditional practices and values, and their native languages to overcome the adverse effects of federal paternalism, strengthen tribal relations, and improve economic and social conditions for all people in the Southern Plains.
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Focusing on the Wichita, Comanche, Kiowa, Apache, Caddo, Delaware, Cheyenne, and Arapaho of the southern Plains, Meredith uses both native voices and traditional scholarly sources to envision their past. He examines their spirituality, economics, aesthetics, and political structures, and focuses on their peaceful and creative interaction with each other and their environment. The author carefully chronicles the history of Indian-white relations up to the present, highlighting government legislation and economic programs. Finally, he makes specific recommendations concerning Native American peoples and for governmental agencies, based on a responsible trust relationship with the federal government, increased self-governance, and enhanced intertribal relations. Although the first part may seem romanticized and its language sometimes problematic for a Western scholar, this work is not simply conventional historiography but a rapprochement with native understandings of their own past and present. For those interested in alternative forms of history as well as in Western analyses of governmental Indian policy, history, anthropology, and Indian studies. All levels. R. A. Bucko; Le Moyne College